JPS6241046A - recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a compact and durable recorder capable of recycling a porous ribbon and improving recording speed by blowing gas from the back of the ribbon and enabling low-viscosity ink supported by the ribbon to be selectively discharged toward a recording medium. CONSTITUTION:Many pores 2... are provided in the surface of an ink ribbon in accordance with the density of dots to be recorded. The ink ribbon 1 is formed endlessly, and tensely hooked up on a carrier roller 5 which circulates between an ink tank 3 and an area near the surface of a platen 4. A low- viscosity heat-melting ink which has been heated into a liquid phase substance inside an ink tank, is forced into pores 2 from a nozzle 6. After this process, the ink is fed to a recording head 8 with its residual portion removed by a scrapper 7, 7. A heating head 11 selectively heat-melts the heat-melting ink supplied into the pores 2 of the ribbon 1 in accordance with a recording signal. An air nozzle 13 blows the melted ink in the pores 2 toward recording paper s on the platen 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a recording device, and more particularly to an on-demand inkjet recording device using an ink ribbon.

(Prior art) A thermal transfer recording device and an inkjet recording device are
It consumes less power than other non-impact type electrophotographic recording devices or electrostatic recording devices, and has a simple structure, so it is often used in small printers.

However, even with thermal transfer type or inkjet type recording devices that have these advantages, the former causes electrical and mechanical wear and tear on the head and requires strict control of the ink layer thickness. The problem is that it is difficult to regenerate the ribbon, which increases running costs.In addition, in the latter case, the nozzle is easily clogged, and it takes a long time for the next ink to reach the nozzle after ejecting an ink droplet, which reduces the recording speed. The problem is that it is not possible to increase the

In order to solve this problem, the method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 60-71260 is to selectively heat the heat-melting ink supported on a porous ribbon and eject the molten ink with bubbles generated. However,
In this type of device, in addition to changing the ink from a solid phase to a liquid phase in the recording section, it is also necessary to generate bubbles to eject ink droplets, so there are problems with recording responsiveness and local Since it is necessary to rapidly heat the device using thermal energy, there is a problem in that the durability of the device is impaired.

(Objective) The present invention has been made in view of the above problem, and its object is to provide a new recording device that is capable of reproducing ribbons and can significantly improve recording speed.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording device that is compact and highly durable.

(Means for Achieving the Object) That is, in order to achieve the object, the present invention provides a thin film body provided with a large number of holes for carrying low-viscosity ink, and a thin film body that is moved close to the surface of a recording medium. and a gas discharge means for spraying gas onto the back surface of the thin film body in order to selectively discharge the ink carried by the thin film body toward the recording medium.

(Example) The details of the present invention will be described below based on illustrated examples.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which reference numeral l is an ink ribbon made of a film-like material with a film thickness of about 1004 m, and on its surface there is an ink ribbon as shown in FIG. A large number of holes 2 with funnel-shaped enlarged portions 2a on the back surface as shown in FIG.
・are regularly drilled vertically and horizontally corresponding to the dot density to be recorded.

This ink ribbon 1 is formed in an endless shape, and
The ink is stretched over conveyor rollers 5 so as to circulate between the ink tank 3 and the vicinity of the surface of the platen 4.

After the low-viscosity thermofusible ink heated to liquid form in the ink tank 3 is forcibly replenished into the holes 2 by a jet from the nozzle 6, a scraper 7 comes into sliding contact with both sides of the ribbon 1.
．． 7 removes excess ink, and the ink is sent to a rad 8 for recording, which will be described later.

By the way, the recording head 1o described above has a heating head 11.
and an air nozzle 13, the heating heater 11 is arranged on the front side of the platen 4, and
The heat-melting ink supplied to the ribbon 1 (7) hole 2 is selectively heated and melted by the electrodes 12 arranged in rows or in a staggered manner according to the recording signal, and the air nozzle 13 is The air supplied under pressure by the pump 14, which is disposed facing the platen 4 with the ink ribbon l in between, is blown onto the back surface of the ink ribbon L, and the dynamic and static pressures at that time are applied to the holes 2... - It is configured to blow out the molten ink inside toward the recording paper S on the platen 4.

In the apparatus configured as described above, when a part of the ink ribbon l enters the ink tank 3, it is exposed to a jet of heated and melted ink from the nozzle 6, and the remaining ink in the holes 2 is replaced with new ink. replaced by Then, when the surface of this ribbon l comes into sliding contact with the scraper 7.7, the name tag and
The amount of ink inside is adjusted to correspond to the film thickness of the ink ribbon 1.

The low-viscosity hot-melt ink thus supplied to the ink ribbon L is heated to a rad 1 along with the ink ribbon L.
1, they cool and solidify, but when they come into contact with the tips of the pin-shaped electrodes 12 provided on the heating pad 11, they are selectively heated again and melted. When the ribbon 1 moves further to the platen 4 and faces the recording paper S with a slight gap, the air nozzle 13 disposed there blows air pressurized by the pump 14 onto the back surface of the ribbon 1 to melt it. The ink is ejected as ink droplets in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the ink ribbon 1 while being guided by the inner wall of the hole 2, and is deposited on the surface of the recording paper S in front of it.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the hole 2 of the ink ribbon 1...
A heating head 21 that equally heats the ink carried on the
and a large number of nozzles 23... communicated with the pump 24 via valves 25..., and by opening and closing the valves 25... in response to a recording signal, heated and melted ink is transferred to the recording paper S. In this embodiment, the low viscosity ink, which is liquid at room temperature, is held in the hole 2 of the ink ribbon 1 by surface tension while the nozzle 23 is also ejected. It is also possible to convey the ink to the surface of the recording paper S and selectively eject the ink onto the surface of the recording paper S without using the heating head 21.

In this case, the air nozzle 23 including the air nozzle 13 in the first embodiment is connected to a vibrating pressurizing device using a piezoelectric element or the like, and configured to receive pulsed pressurized air from there. You can also.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, a porous ribbon having a large number of holes 2 is used as the ink ribbon 1.
This can also be replaced with a mesh-like ribbon.

Furthermore, in the apparatus according to the present invention, the above-mentioned recycled ribbon can be replaced by using a porous ribbon filled with a low-viscosity heat-melting ink in advance.

(Effects) As described above, according to the present invention, low viscosity ink carried on the ribbon is selectively ejected toward the recording medium by blowing gas from the back side of the porous ribbon. , recording is performed without the ribbon and the gas ejection means constituting the recording head coming into contact with each other to prevent wear and tear on the head, etc., and to prevent each hole in the ribbon from clogging the nozzles. By sequentially ejecting the ink filled inside the recording surface toward the recording surface, the recording speed can be greatly improved.

Furthermore, if a heating means that operates in parallel with the gas spraying is provided, the amount of ink ejected can be adjusted to U:J by controlling the amount of heating, thus forming an image with r4I tonality. is now possible and also.

Since the amount of ink can be controlled by adjusting the film thickness of the ribbon, a recycled ribbon method can be adopted very easily.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an apparatus showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing its recording/writing operation, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of essential parts showing another embodiment of the invention. . 1... Ink ribbon 3... Ink tank 4...
・Platen 10.20・Self・Recording head 11.2
1...Heating head 13.23...Air nozzle S...Recording paper Applicant Epson Corporation (and 1 other person) Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A thin film body having a large number of holes that carries low-viscosity ink, a means for moving the thin film body close to the surface of a recording medium, and a means for moving the thin film body close to the surface of a recording medium; A recording apparatus comprising a gas discharge means for spraying gas onto the back surface of the thin film body in order to selectively discharge gas toward a recording medium. 2. An endless thin film body provided with a large number of holes for carrying low-viscosity ink, an ink replenishing means for replenishing the ink to the thin film body, and the thin film body being placed near the ink replenishing means and the surface of the recording medium. A recording apparatus comprising a means for moving the ink, and a gas ejecting means for blowing gas onto the back surface of the thin film in order to selectively eject the ink carried by the thin film toward the recording medium. 3. A thin film body provided with a large number of holes that supports low-viscosity, heat-melting ink, and a thin film body disposed on the front side of the recording section in the moving direction of the ribbon, and in which the ink carried by the thin film body is disposed in response to a recording signal. heating means for selectively heating and melting the ink; means for moving the thin film close to the surface of the recording medium; and means for discharging the molten ink toward the recording medium uniformly on the back surface of the recording medium. A recording device equipped with a gas jetting means.